Last week, I had written about the opportunity that existed to get Gold and Silver Status with Air India, depending on your Air India SBI Credit Card and your status with certain other competing airlines. While I had sent in my request for a status match a few days before I wrote about this post, I expected to do a follow-up or few with SBI Cards and/or Air India before getting this Gold Status, and I wasn’t even sure if I was going to get it or not. It did not matter much because at the moment I am a sporadic Air India flyer with most of my business with Jet Airways. Anyhow, there was radio silence from the other…
Jet Airways to withdraw bonus miles for web/kiosk check-in
Long long time ago, in 2008 or earlier, some genius inside Jet Airways, and I don’t mean it in a sarcastic way, figured the best way to reduce the crowd at the airport check-in counters was to incentivise people to check in via computers. And the incentive, they figured, was a bunch of extra miles. They started to award 250 bonus miles per sector to everyone who ever checked-in on a domestic or international flight via their website or kiosks (and SMS back in the day) on Jet Airways, and 125 bonus miles per sector for those using JetKonnect/JetLite. I’m assuming it worked well to influence the behaviour of people who travel with Jet Airways and JetKonnect and encouraged them…
1000 Free AAdvantage miles for playing a game + 9000 miles bonuses for flying
American Airlines just released a new Facebook based challenge game, where for playing a game of trivia, which would take about 15 minutes, you get 700 miles posted to your AAdvantage account. If you choose to share with your online social circle, you get another 350 miles. And if you choose to fly American Airlines, US Airways and other oneworld partners during the duration of the challenge (which lasts up to May 23, 2014), you get up to 9000 bonus AA miles. You can find the details and follow the Facebook link from the American Airlines website here. Like you will see below, you get 50 miles for a lot of small activities each, and then you get bigger challenges…
American Express adds 7 lounges across India
American Express is trying to step up their product offering in India after a very very long time (say 5 years!). In 2012, they came up with the American Express Jet Airways co-branded credit card, which has been in my wallet since, and now they are adding some serious muscle to their existing offerings. American Express cards did not offer much of Lounge access in India, apart from access to the Mumbai and Delhi Platinum lounge, that too, not for everyone, only Platinum and Centurion Card holders, and Jet Platinum Credit Card holders without any guests. Of course, Platinum Card holders and Centurion Card holders get Priority Passes as well, but this did not have the convenience of having a…
Virgin Atlantic goes big on Bollywood with an innovative discount
Clearly the movies and flying have been interconnected for a long time, but Virgin Atlantic is trying to make an interesting twist on the Indian movies business, by riding a discount promotion on the Bollywood plank. They’ve announced a new promotion called “Feel like a Star”, where they are offering discounts to people with the 12 first names listed below, since the airline says these are the 12 most often used names in Hindi movies: Karan Anthony Vijay Arjun Rahul Rohit Simran Tina Pooja Priya Kiran Sonia While the process of getting this list out is debatable because my first name is not on this list , the airline is offering a 5% discount on economy fares and 10% discount…
Passport Control changes for travel to/fro India since March 2014
The Bureau of Immigration, Government of India made some changes to the requirements for travelling to and from India for Indian as well as Foreign passengers from India. Considering there was no widespread education campaign about this, earlier this month, I still filled up this form because British Airways gave me one, and at the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 they still collected the customs counterfoil of this Disembarkation form from me. This is the statement from the Bureau of Immigration: It has been decided to do away with the filling of Departure (Embarkation) Card by Foreigners and Arrival (Disembarkation) Card by Indians w.e.f. March 1, 2014. Indian nationals are not required to fill in Disembarkation (Arrival) Card w.e.f. March 1,…
2 Free Uber rides for LiveFromALounge readers
It is no secret that I am a Uber fanboy, if there is a term like that. I’ve been waiting for these guys to come to India and give us a little respite from the flagging a cab and waiting for a cab to come up. Ever since they’ve launched in Delhi and Mumbai, two cities I call home, I’ve seen myself in many of their cars, which include everything from a BMW X1 to a Mercedes E-class to a Toyota Innova, but not the broken 20 year old Mumbai cabs for the least. The pricing is slightly high, but the money is worth it. In my numerous trips from the Airports recently, I’ve largely tried and used Uber to…
SpiceJet gets into trouble for celebrating Holi on the plane
SpiceJet decided to be a little excited about the festival of colours, Holi, which was celebrated around the country earlier this week. Not a bad thought in its own right, except this attracted the attention of the aviation regulator DGCA who thinks they have not done the right thing by organising some song and dance on board. Here is a video of the dance on board SG 876 between Goa and Bangalore as captured by a passenger. The same performance was conducted on 8 flights of the airline on March 17. As per the airline, the cabin was staffed with three extra cabin crew members and the cockpit was manned at all times during this 2.5 minutes performance. However, the…
Air India offering double miles in March–April 2014
Air India put out a new promotion earlier this week, where they are offering double miles for flying on select routes from March 15, 2014 to April 30, 2014. These double miles are double for your eligible class of flying, and hence if you’re booked deep discount economy fares (E class, for instance), you will only get double of 25% of miles for the distance you fly (in case of domestic flights). And yes, Air India does offer 500 miles per sector as web booking bonus as well. Personally, I don’t find this a very attractive offer, since booking the same segments with Jet Airways would give me 100% of flown miles as credit, and 500 miles as online booking…
Citibank to launch Prestige Credit Card in India
Citibank has been working on two new products to replace the existing Citibank Ultima, which has been their lifestyle and travel credit card in India for about five years or more, and was their product equivalent of the American Express Platinum. Over a period of time, the Jet Airways and Priority Pass privileges went away and the product proposition was vastly reduced. Since American Express launched their Centurion in India, Citibank will be relaunching the Ultima to compete with the Amex Centurion, and Citibank Prestige will be launched in India at INR 20,000 plus taxes to be the lifestyle credit card for Citibank. My guess is this product will be issued as a Visa product in India, while it is…
Hyatt offering 3000 bonus points at 2 hotels in India
One of the two hotel currencies that are much wanted around the world are Hyatt Gold Passport Points, and for the lack of a co-branded credit card, they are pretty hard to earn in India. Hyatt does take to the bonus route on new hotel openings, and at this moment they are offering bonuses of 3000 Gold Passport points at two of their latest Indian hotels. Firstly, there is the Hyatt Regency Ludhiana, which has recently opened and is offering 3000 bonus points for stays between March 1 and May 31 2014. The offer code for this is 3KGP and needs to be put on your reservation before you check-in. There is also the Hyatt Raipur, which has opened a…
